Jane Halton (Image: AAP/Mick Tsikas)

Is the talent pool in Canberra getting smaller? 

The latest company with plans to cash in on the pandemic has ties to the Morrison government — and some familiar names are popping up again. 

Quarantine Services Australia (QSA) is proposing to build a network of privately run quarantine facilities to allow big mining and agricultural companies to bring in cheap labour from overseas. It has the backing of Rio Tinto and the Business Council of Australia, and is being advised by none other than Ms Quarantine herself, Jane Halton, who at the same time is being paid by the government to conduct a second review into the quarantine system. 

So, what’s the project?

QSA wants to build multiple user-pays quarantine facilities that can be rolled out across the country and used by big business to bring in students, workers or skilled migrants.

The plan, first flagged by news.com.au, would begin with a pilot project in the Northern Territory and eventually expand to other states.

Halton told the ABC’s Fran Kelly that private quarantine services were essential to the economic recovery given businesses were struggling without access to overseas labour.

“We know that there are tens of thousands of, for example, agriculture workers needed to deal with things like harvesting,” she said. “We need to make sure the capacity to deliver that quarantine is there.”

Overlooking the ethical issues of putting poor overseas workers into user-pays centres, there are also questions about whether the group’s close political ties create a conflict of interest. 

Political connections

All business ventures benefit from good political connections, and QSA has them in spades. 

Documents filed with the corporate regulator show its only listed director is Scott Briggs, the inexorable former NSW Liberal deputy director, party donor and close friend of Prime Minister Scott Morrison. 

Briggs has a history of using his connections to help guide his entrepreneurial spirit. Last year he led a consortium to bid for the government’s controversial outsourced visa processing system. He ended up bowing out of the group amid conflict of interest concerns. 

Briggs is now a lobbyist at DPG Advisory where he works alongside former Liberal staffer and ex-Peter Costello adviser David Gazard to lobby on behalf of some of the most powerful companies in the world, including Facebook, G4S, Afterpay and Rio Tinto.

Gazard told Crikey that DPG was engaged by Home Affairs as the “industry liaison” to enable the facilitation of an industry-led and industry-funded quarantine program. 

He said there were no conflict of interest issues “whatsoever” given the company was not going to receive any government funding. 

“It is a 100% industry funded initiative,” he said. 

So why the involvement with Home Affairs? 

The department tells Crikey it has been working with private sector representatives about private quarantine services, and this had culminated in the company — which it described as being “not for profit” — being established. 

“The Department of Home Affairs plays no role in the administration or funding of QSA.”

Familiar names

Halton has been everywhere during the pandemic, including as a prominent media commentator on the COVID-19 response. But among her many hats is a go-to adviser for the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C). 

Since May last year Halton has received $391,000 in limited tender contracts from the PM&C for a range of management advisory services. She is being paid to give advice on “labour hire services” and has also conducted reviews into the national quarantine system, making her the perfect person to advise the private sector on what is missing. 

Another familiar name joining the project is Aspen Medical, which will reportedly administer the scheme. Aspen has been one of the biggest winners of pandemic spending, receiving contracts worth almost $1.3 billion in the 18 months to August 2021.